News brief · Reported 8 October 2026
Researchers Hannes Bonhoff and Heikki Helanterä propose a different way to understand the life cycle of honeybee colonies. Their review argues that a queen and her workers can be treated as a single superorganism, with a new queen marking a new biological individual.
Under this interpretation, a long-lived hive houses a lineage of related colonies rather than one immortal colony. The idea also changes how swarming is interpreted. This is a research argument based on earlier studies, not a newly observed species or a proven universal rule.
Sources: Lund University · University of Oulu research paper
Illustrative stock photo; it does not depict this event. Photo: Simon Kadula / Unsplash.